#am I using basically the same bitmoji image as last year?

[writingwife-83]

My Sherlolly Self Interview 2021

Hello there! First of all, thank you to @sherlollyappreciationweek for organizing this event! I’ll do a quick intro and then get down to business and answer some questions.

I’m a wife and mom in my late 30s and live in the New England area of the USA. I’ve always loved to write fiction as a hobby, but for most of my life it was original fiction. I’ve been a BBC Sherlock fan since 2014, and that was really what introduced me to the world of fandom and fanfic. I shipped sherlolly since the very first moment they were on screen together and once I discovered the world of fanfic for them, I think it was only a matter of days or weeks until I decided I wanted to try writing for them as well. The rest is history!

I’ll put the questions under the cut since this is going to get loooong lol!

Ok so first up, @mizjoely asked- Sherlolly was your first fandom that you started writing for. How does it compare to the Reylo fandom? What are the best/worst parts of writing for each?

An interesting question lol! This is something I’ve definitely thought a lot about since, like you said, sherlolly was my first fandom and it was all I knew until I stepped over into reylo as well. To compare, I think I’ll just jump into listing the best and worst about each, because that’ll sum it up.

I’ll start with Reylo. The best part is 1- the ship itself, because I absolutely flipping love them to pieces and Idc what anyone has to say about it lol. 2- my little “fandom of three,” as Lexie and darthsydious and I tend to call it. And 3- the fan works for that pair are so incredibly varied and it opens up a heck of a lot of options for creating. I think the less there is in canon, the more opportunities for exploration among the fandom, so that’s pretty fun. As for the worst, 1- The frequent low response to fics. I get that I started creating very late, it’s an enormous fandom where you can get lost in the shuffle, and there’s also a high demand for the kind of fics that I don’t write. But no matter the reasons…it just sucks. 2- there seems to be a bit more squabbling among the shippers about details of the characters and how they’re portrayed in canon. Seems a waste of time to me when we could just be having fun enjoying the same ship. And 3- again, the ship is just so BIG lol. I absolutely prefer the small fandom experience. That said, let’s talk about sherlolly…

The best things are 1- sherlolly of course, because they’re freaking amazing and I love them. 2- the relatively small size of the fandom, particularly when it’s down to the small bunch of us who are somehow still invested nearly 5 yrs later lol. And that allows us to be so incredibly organized too! *cough* sherlollilists *cough* 😉 3- the way I was so warmly welcomed and appreciated right from the start. It didn’t matter that I started writing when we were 3 series into a 4 series show. I got feedback and validation that I never could have imagined. And 4- the way we tend to rally around negativity or someone is being mistreated. I’ve seen this ship turn negativity around in the best sort of way imo, which is by canceling it out with positivity. As for the worst things? Those are harder to come up with so…I don’t think I’ll list anything. 🥰

Next up I have a bunch of questions from @miniherodesktales and I’ll answer them divided up by the two asks- I hope it's okay if I ask several questions. 1.) What's your favourite fic that you've written? 2.) Are you a fan of the canon or is it just Sherlock for you? - I've noticed that you seem to like period fics, so wondering if you blend elements from original canon with BBC Sherlock? Plus, I'm always hoping more Sherllolians will join me in enjoying some of the older Holmes adaptations as there is a lot of fun ones out there I think people would love.

As for my fave fic, I think it might be too tough to choose just one lol. I think my top 3 would have to be I Told You So, Zephyr, and maybe also my newer one For the Best. All for their own reasons, but I’m just generally happy with how those turned out and really enjoyed the writing process.

I’m definitely a big fan of the BBC canon, yes! In fact, for close to my first year in the sherlolly fandom, I wasn’t interested in AUs at all lol. But you’re right, now I do enjoy period AUs a lot. I think it’s just a fun way to enjoy new things for the ship. Sadly, I admit I have very limited exposure to the original ACD canon. I’m not against the original canon, it’s just that for me BBC Sherlock is my Sherlock. That’s basically how I was exposed to the character. I might explore more here and there, but for the most part I enjoy BBC Sherlock and I’m kinda happy to stick to that.

And- A second ask - sorry!  1) Do you feel a need to shape your interpretations of Molly and Sherlock so that they are unique to you and differ from the show and other Sherlolly writers? Same for your Star Wars fics. 2.) Is it something that just happens naturally and not something to worry about? 3.) How do your craft your stories and plots? 4.) How important is writing to you?

This is an excellent question, and for me the answer is no. Imo, good fanfic is about the characters feeling like the characters in canon, in whatever situation they’re in. So I have no desire to create a Molly or Sherlock that is nothing like the ones we see on screen. And the same would definitely apply to my Star Wars writing. My clause to this is that people interpret characters differently. So what feels in character to me might not feel so to someone else.

It has come more naturally over time I feel, but I am still definitely very conscious of my characterization. When I write I try my best to hear the dialogue in my head and decide whether it feels believable for those characters’ canon voices. So in a way, yes it’s something I worry about. Because I’d hate to have someone read my fic and feel like they’re pulled out of the moment due to a wording or tone that doesn’t feel right.

My honest answer to how I craft my stories is that when I either get or am given an idea, I pretty much immediately consult my fandom and real life besties @thisisartbylexie and “darthsydious” and I share with them what I’m thinking and/or ask for their input. It’s rare that I concoct a fic 100% on my own. It usually involves a lot of squealing and plotting with them lol.

Writing is moderately important to me. It’s certainly not in my top list of priorities, but I also consider it a healthy hobby and creative outlet, and I think we all need something like that. When I have free time, I do think it’s a nice thing to use my time for.

@englandsgray asked- Hey hey 👋 Is there a moment or line somewhere in the canon which you think is underrated? Have you already written about it, if so? Or is it something you’re yet to explore? Thanks! Enjoy the self interview ❤️

That’s a really interesting question and I had to give it some thought! I’m going to go with the line in ASiB where Molly says of John going to visit his sister- “Sherlock was complaining- saying.” It’s not like this has never been talked about, but perhaps not quite as much as some other line. I do find it interesting because this is canon evidence that Sherlock is with Molly behind the scenes and without John present. That could be at Bart’s, but it could also be elsewhere. It’s just another little tidbit that reminds us of something that I believe Louise Brealey said after s4, which was that there’s clearly so much “off screen” between those two that we don’t get to see. I guess I haven’t explored that line specifically, so who knows, maybe someday!

And finally, I got this ask from @dlrconlicense- Are there any characters that you don't like writing or feel the most difficulty with when including them in your works? (Could be from any fandom)

Boy, this is a tough one. Tbh I feel pretty comfortable with the main characters I write at this point. But I think some characters take a little more work to write than others. John Watson, for instance. Martin Freeman is such an awesome actor, but his facial expressions are a big part of that. There’s a lot of subtle things he conveys and it’s sometimes hard to translate that perfectly into words. That’s just one example of how it can take a little extra thought to write certain characters.

Thank you so much to the four who asked me questions and I hope it was enjoyable for you guys and others to read. And to anyone who has read this far and gotten through all my ramblings, you get a really big 🍪 lol!

[its-salem]

Animatic Story Board

                                        Research

Research 1

I wanted to build my idea using 2d coloured characters and avatar generators. I decided to further my research on youtube and came across two lovely videos of which clearly depicts my idea and style of animation. Luckily, I managed to come across a video from a Youtube Channel with tutorials on how to build Avatars in photoshop.    https://youtu.be/gix7MgajoTw

What I personally found about this video and the way the characters were drawn, it was more of drag and drop then later animate from frame by frame in order to support motion. I loved the design of African essence since my story happened in the land similar to this kind of nature.

Research 2

Meltrek Episode one

This is an animated  adventure of friends who travelled back in time to Ancient Africa. One thing I really licked about the clip is the background and Camera angles. I will copy a few hints on organisation and extreme creativity put forward to come up with this exciting video.

Link:    

https://youtu.be/myGbxXslutY

                                                                        Plan and Idea

I was given a lecture on how to create a story board and all the stages. We were given a brief for the story board which was Animatic Project. I thought about different ideas on how I would successfully execute and create an exciting project. 

I came up with a plan of  story board on a title sequence or film scene which I would find interesting. I went through different movie clips and trailers in order to come up with one possible scene i would use to build ideas and that was ‘X-MEN 3 The last Stand’.

This movie is 11 years old as of 2017, it was released in mid 2006 and the VFX is incredibly amazing. watching it over and over again seems like a latest movie because of the advanced techniques of editing, manipulation, Camera angles, lighting, Stunts and Filming for vfx. 

I carried out intense research and managed to get hold of the original story board posted by one of the artiste who goes by the names of Adrien Van Viersen.

                        Shots on sequence/Timeline

                                       Shots On Story Board

                                           Initial Idea/ Story

In short, I will create an animatic about an event that happened to me in the past. Basically, it was that time of the year when me and a friend decided to go for a walk in the wild. she thought about setting up a camp fire and have a moment of reminisce and jokes.

Later on things turned up side down when we were joined by uninvited company with endless bottles of pop( Alcohol ) and ended up drunk to the point were I couldn’t tell how many present. Things worsened and I ended up in the hospital. The following morning, doctors told me off about excessive consumption of Alcohol and how it will affect my functioning, day to day activities and life style.

I came up with a reverse storyboard for this story as show below:

                         Reverse Story Board

I thought about different types of story board examples which i can use successfully. I decided rather to draw sketches in order to portray the right angles, camera movements and any motion tracking.

Some the Camera movements include: 

Dolly and Track: This is when a camera is used to follow the characters in films

Pan: Moving the camera along the Y axis from left  to right or right to left

Tilt: Moving the Camera from up and down the subject

Pull Focus: A shift in adjusting the focus between foreground and background depends on what part of the film needs to be sharp.

Zoom: This means altering the camera lense to get closer to an object in the background without having to physically move.

                                       Shots and Close ups

Photo Extracted from:

http://portfolio.reigate.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=3226

Explaining the various types of shots and angles I might use in animatic 

Medium Closeup: 

The shot that utilises the most common framing in movies, shows less than a long shot, more than a close-up.

Closeup: 

A shot that keeps only the face full in the frame. Perhaps the most important building block in cinematic storytelling.

Long Shot: 

A shot that depicts an entire character or object from head to foot. Not as long as an establishing shot.

High angle shot: 

A shot looking down on a character or subject often isolating them in the frame. Nothing says Billy No Mates like a good old high angle shot

                                                                          Build Up Stage 1

I thought about using A BITMOJI app that generates avatars which looks more like you at any stage. I created an Avatar that looked more like me at the age of 17 as shown above.

In order to Save and use the Avatars I had to sign up for a snapchat app to be able to take screen shots of which later will be converted to Portable Network Graphic (Png) 

Extras

I used a few More Avatars created by friends to represent the extras in the story as shown Below.

                                                                                                 PHOTOSHOP

I realised that in order to animate the Avatars I had to cut out the background and convert them in PNG files. I used Adobe photoshop to smoothly make this possible. PNG Avatar photos would look more interesting and easier to give motion during the editing stage in Premiere Pro.

Before as a JPEG file

After converting to PNG file

I repeated the same process to all of my pictures and the Final Results were transparent backgrounds ready to be used in Animatic.

                                                          Editing ( Premiere Pro)

I have always Used Premiere Pro from CS4 right up-to date. I found it easier to go around with editing sequence and using all the functions. 

Firstly, I had to choose the song choice which is an African ZULU beat copyright free. This had to serve as the background track in order to achieve the right depiction of the idea basing on the mood and the atmosphere at which the song fits. 

Song Title:  African Skies (Stephen J. Anderson) URL: 

https://youtu.be/rq9yhEkMXMU Copyright free for Non Profit Use

In Progress, I used an African Warm Yellowish Sunset Backgrounds free copyrighted pictures from a genuine website. 

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjgo5LctvrWAhVBAsAKHT3QA-oQjhwIBQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F600878775254748002%2F&psig=AOvVaw3BcIlZQQK2sP0P6BbZXtyR&ust=1508424876794869

Sequence/ Workflow 

A display of the Sequence/Timeline during the Production Stage.

   Feedback & Consultation 

At this stage I consulted my lecturer Jason Bevan to go through my project looking out for the mistakes and inconsistence. He advised me to edit my shots and scenes on a 180 degree curve scenery especially when I change the camera angles the background must change too. 

There were a few other mistakes we discussed about and came up with fresh new ideas ( Background Manipulation). To achieve this I had to use a 3D Creator in premiere Pro to manipulation the background to look as if the shots and the backgrounds changed as Shown Below.

Continuation Editing

I went back and changed a few bits to make it look more interesting and added a few more characters in the Background. 

                          The Final animatic Video YouTube Link

https://youtu.be/iqN-UXj3QnA

            Evaluation

This was my first project of this kind(animatic). It was a different way of how i can create story board in contrary to what I was taught in College. This project availed me an opportunity to embrace deeper stages of designs, animation as well as creativity.

I conducted my research throughly for better understanding of styles and codes of practice in animatics. The overall project was a success despite the fact that the available material was rather hard to adjust in a format I would love to see.

Weaknesses:

I was Unable to create angles and points of view with BITMOJI characters. i couldn’t show the back of the character or change camera angles from a different POV.

Since am a beginner with photoshop, I found it challenging to cut backgrounds accurately tho I managed to get the PNG files eventually.

Success:

I managed to complete my project in a timely manner and I believe my work is somewhat amazing. Through research, I have managed to discover different styles of creating animatics and I hope to enhance my skills and knowledge of understanding designs.

                  Conclusion

Overall, I strongly believe that I can improve if i focus more as well as putting in more effort.

                   ‘’ If you Love It You Can Achieve It ‘’